So, this is a famous photo of Hitler's vaunted "Atlantic Wall". The questions I have are: Where is this? What gun is that? Is any of this construction still there, wherever there is? Is there a backstory on this photo? Thank you.
I don't have a lot of information about that gun, but I believe it's one of the turret mounts at Batterie Lindemann on the coast west of Calais, with a 406 mm gun (about 16"). Don't know its fate or if it's still in place.
Here are some modern pictures, not so modern actually: the bunker was sacrificied in the 1990s when it was buried in the foundations of the Channel Tunnel. All what is left of it nowadays is a large lake and a modern dam...... An example of the importance of historical buildings vs modern economy.... Hope this helps la batterie lindemann en photo satellite
Honestly, wiping away works of Hitler in favor of facilitating more and better international relations sounds good to me. Think about what the channel tunnel means to those damned (literally, I believe) nazis. They fought and struggled SO HARD to isolate the continent from England and now, tourists can take the train in about half an hour from the English terminal to the French terminal. Pfft.
Do we really need to destroy everything that a Nazi built? While there are plenty of beach bunkers still around and progress is important we should never say that everything built by bad people needs to be destroyed or progress. Goodness sakes you would have to wipe Russian cities off the face of the earth and start over. I may be going to far, but it illustrates where the thought could take us.
As I see your comparison, and recognize its validity as per "ancient" constructions, I wonder if less "time-worn" buildings might be of less import historically as we progress toward the future. They may (or not) be missed at some time in the future, but not to the extent that they should stand in the way. Now, I doubt that tearing down a Nazi construction to build a shopping mall is the best idea, it sort of depends on which is more valuable today, not in the future does it not? Some of those Nazi constructs are so well built that they seem indestructable, i.e. the Flak towers in Berlin. I read that one of them was simply covered with the rubble from re-building the city, and now forms the interior of an artifical hill. Now that is a good use for one of them is it not? I myself am only in favor of destroying, or burying some Nazi construction if it stands in the way of some other more pragmatic use of the area. Otherwise, turn them into tourist traps and make money off of them, I think one of the Channel Islands does that yet today (?). I dunno, some of them I would like to see just out of curiousity if nothing else, but that said I wouldn't go out of my way to "defend" their existance simply for that reason.
I think you got the point of what I was saying. I would like to see the flak hill! The fact that it was made during 1933-1945 does not automatically mean it needs to be destroyed.
Here's a link to a bunch of photos of the Flak towers as they still existed in 2008, including the one that was buried intentionally: Axis History Forum • View topic - Flak towers and U bahn pics? I think it is about the third or fourth one in, some are still in great shape in other cities as well.
i agree. history is history, and nothing should ever be forgotten. i would understand if it was full of nazi symbols and the such, but anything else is historically important and should be seen by the world plus, if we don't learn from our past, we will continue to repeat our mistakes
I agree that historical things should be preserved. Sometimes though, there are things that we as humans have built that served no purpose but to kill other humans. The gun emplacement in the photo is one such. Demolishing THAT to make the chunnel? No argument here. Demolishing the Brandenburg Gate? That is another story. As for George Santanaya's quote: Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I could not agree more, but do we need to keep every single thing out there? Every single gun emplacement? Why not every single guard shack? Or every single latrine which was dug to Wehrmacht specifications? You simply can not keep everything intact. That is why we have museums -- to pick and choose what is significant and important and to preserve those things. Look at CADW at Cadw There you have an incredible national organization preserving the things in that nation's history it deemed important. And lastly, the damned emplacement was in FRANCE! Do you thing the French want to keep something like that existing? I think, instead, they would prefer to maintain this:
